In general, a refrigerator, which is a home appliance that may store foods in a storage space therein shielded by a door at a low temperature, is configured to store stored foods in an optimum state by cooling an inside of a storage space using cold air generated through heat exchange with a refrigerant circulating in a refrigerating cycle.
Such a refrigerator tends to be enlarged and multi-functioned due to a change in dietary habits and diversification of tastes of a user, and refrigerators having various structures and convenience equipment mounted thereon for user's convenience and freshness of stored foods have been released.
Meanwhile, odor occurs in the interior of the refrigerator by the stored foods. The type and the density of the odor are changed in accordance with the type and freshness of the stored foods, and a user feels displeasure in accordance with the type and the density of the odor. Further, when foods that generate a large amount of odor are stored, the odor affects textures of other foods.
Further, air within the refrigerator is polluted due to introduction of external air when the door is opened and then closed. That is, decomposition of foods may be promoted due to bacteria included in the external air or the foods may be polluted due to dusts. When the foods are decomposed or polluted, odor that is generated in the foods gets worse, and thus provides larger inconvenience to the user.
To solve the above-described problems, a system for purifying the air within the refrigerator is required.
Meanwhile, when cold air introduced into the refrigerator is purified through a cold air generating room having an evaporator, there is problems in that it is impossible to purify the air within the refrigerator while the cold air is not supplied to the inside of the cold air generating room, and when the air is consistently purified, a storage state of foods becomes bad because the inside of the refrigerator is excessively cooled as air cooled by the evaporator is consistently supplied to the inside of the refrigerator.